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E39 (1997 - 2003) The BMW 5-Series (E39 chassis) was introduced in the United States as a 1997 model year car and lasted until the 2004 when the E60 chassis was released. The United States saw several variations including the 525i, 528i, 530i and 540i. -- View the E39 Wiki

This is my first post and I would be extremely gratefull if someone could help me.

I have just bought a start button for my 2000yr 535i V8 and have connected the relay up to the cigarette lighter. (power and used the illumination wires to illuminate start button as
well). I am just left with two wires from the main contacts of the relay that go to wires from
the ignition. On the ignition connector I have three red wires (permanently live) then 3 Green wires, 1 Violet and then 1 Black with Yellow stripe.

My question is to which of these do I connect the two wires from the relay to. I have seen some pictures on a forum but they had a couple of different coloured wires so not sure.

Hope someone can help as the button looks nice in the dashboard but doesn't do anything.

It is simply a 2 connection Press to make contact switch. There are another two for illumination which is working fine (fed from cigarette illumination wires). The other connections have power just to make (pressed or break (release) the relay contacts,terminals 85 and 30 I think. These are the connections that the two wires come from that I need to know where to connect to start car.

Damn, I wish we had that 3.5L V8 over here in Canada/North America. I just watched a couple videos on youtube, sounds awesome. Do you know the curb weight of the 535i E39? One of the main reasons I am not a fan of the 540i is because it is so much heavier (~roughly 500lbs) than the 530i, while only gaining some 50-60hp. My favourite part of my E39 is the handling and I have always felt that the V8 would upset this.

Damn, I wish we had that 3.5L V8 over here in Canada/North America. I just watched a couple videos on youtube, sounds awesome. Do you know the curb weight of the 535i E39? One of the main reasons I am not a fan of the 540i is because it is so much heavier (~roughly 500lbs) than the 530i, while only gaining some 50-60hp. My favourite part of my E39 is the handling and I have always felt that the V8 would upset this.

Sorry my bad, I had read somewhere (unreliably) that the 540 was somewhere around 4,000lbs. And in my defense, the 540 only had 290 horse in the last 2 years of it's 7 year run, so it's more common 282hp iteration is within the ranges I said (I also had the Wikipedia stated Hp of 228 for the 530i, giving the 540i only a 54hp advantage). However, the incredible torque of 324lb-ft definitely makes all comparison irrelevant. Thanks.

If you get stuck or need some more help etc, I do know one of the Bristol area's best specialist auto electricians. He does his main work at the dealerships level mainly so the usual fare, BMW, Audi, Renault, Mercedes etc etc.

I'm sure he'd know exactly how to wire the start button in and get it all working and more importantly, fitted well and to high quality and thus safety, levels.

Your right about being practical, but I can probably say most of us (I6 and V8) didn't buy a BMW to be practical.

Anyway, back to your Start Button.
Your switch is p/n 61326901962 and mine is 61326901961. I think they are the same electrically, but you should confirm this with an ohm meter before you wire in the relay.
Does your ignition switch connector look like this? If so, it looks like you need to connect your N.O. relay contacts to pins 5 and 8 of the ignition switch.
5 is a red wire and 8 is a black/yellow wire.

If you get stuck or need some more help etc, I do know one of the Bristol area's best specialist auto electricians. He does his main work at the dealerships level mainly so the usual fare, BMW, Audi, Renault, Mercedes etc etc.

I'm sure he'd know exactly how to wire the start button in and get it all working and more importantly, fitted well and to high quality and thus safety, levels.